Friends in High Places
by raineynight
Summary: Tsuna had to wonder how he got into these situations. He'd just wanted to go for a walk, get away from everyone in his house for a little while. And so of course it had gone immediately downhill. OR Example A for why Tsuna should never leave his house. Really. It never goes well.


Tsuna had to wonder how he got into these situations. He couldn't even blame Reborn this time, because he was out of town for the day to deal with something. Honestly, the less he questioned how Reborn spent his time, the easier he slept at night.

But back to his current predicament. Lost, in the woods, with no food, no water, no phone, and no way to defend himself (other than his gloves, but he didn't have any way to activate them). Plus, he was still getting over a bad cold. This was something that happened to little kids, not teenagers! At this point, he wasn't sure he even wanted to find his way home. Being eaten by a bear might be preferable to Reborn's reaction when he heard about this.

He didn't deserve this! He'd just wanted to go for a walk, get away from everyone in his house for a little while. Lambo, I-pin, and Bianchi all in one place could generate enough noise and destruction to bring the walls down around them, he was pretty sure. And Mama just smiled and laughed at their antics. He hadn't left the house for several days while he was sick, and they were making his headache worse. So he'd left for a nice, short walk. Normally Gokudera and Yamamoto would join him, but Gokudera was at a science conference and Yamamoto had an away game. He had thought it would be pleasant, to have just a few minutes to himself.

And so of course it had gone immediately downhill. He took a detour to avoid some classmates, got swept up in a crowd, got lost, couldn't find a map, was chased into the forest by a bunch of big dogs, ran through a stream, climbed a tree to escape, managed to hang onto the tree for dear life until he was sure the dogs had left, fell out of the tree trying to climb down, hit his already aching head on a branch, laid on the ground in abject misery for several long minutes, and then realized he had no signal on his cellphone.

Really, why did he even bother leaving his house at this point.

He trudged through the forest, ducking under low-hanging branches and jumping over fallen logs. At least he had more stamina now, thanks to Reborn. (Even if he would never admit aloud to being glad for any of the evil baby's sadistic tutoring.) He'd tried to use his Intuition to find his way out, but the pounding headache made it impossible to interpret the feelings he got from it.

A rustling in the leaves above his head startled him, and he looked up quickly.

Out of the branches shot a little yellow blur that immediately dove for his head. Tsuna tried to dodge, but wasn't quick enough, and he soon had… a little yellow bird on his head? He was still for a moment.

"Hibird?" he asked hesitantly. A cheerful chirp was his answer, and he relaxed. It was just Hibird, he wasn't being attacked-

He immediately tensed again. "Is- is Hibari-senpai with you?" The little bird was with Hibari almost all the time, and what he didn't need right now was for Hibari to show up, bite him to death, and then leave him to die in the forest with a ruptured spleen or something.

"Hibari," Hibird chirped sadly, fluffing his wings restlessly before settling back down in Tsuna's hair. Huh. Maybe Hibari wasn't around after all.

"What's wrong? Are you lost?" He felt a bit silly having a discussion with a bird, but Hibari probably talked to Hibird all the time, and Reborn talked to Leon. Come to think of it, Tsuna talked to Leon too, so this wasn't any different.

"Hibari Hibari!" Hibird cheeped, still dejected. Tsuna wondered if 'Hibari' was the only word he knew how to say.

"Well, don't worry, you can stay with me until we get you back home. I mean, I'm lost too, but we'll be able to find the way out eventually," he said with as positive a voice as he could manage. Hibird settled more snugly into his hair, so he took that as an agreement.

Tsuna walked for what felt like forever. His body was aching all over, his throat felt like he'd swallowed glass, and his head throbbed in time to the beat of his heart. With blurry eyes, he glanced down at his watch (Reborn had forced him to wear it, and it was something else he would never admit to having found useful). He'd been walking for two hours.

Surely someone at home would be worried about him by now. He'd told them he was going for a quick walk, and he'd been gone hours.

But then again, Mama was used to him staying out for hours at a time now. The kids wouldn't even notice. Bianchi might notice, but would probably assume he was with Yamamoto or something.

Reborn would definitely notice if he was at home, but he wasn't due back until tomorrow morning. Even if he were there, it was no guarantee he would help. He'd probably make things even worse, if anything.

So help wouldn't be coming. That was fine. This wasn't the worst thing he'd had to do, or even the scariest. Fighting Xanxus was the scariest. And he'd won that fight, so he had nothing to worry about now.

"We'll be fine, Hibird. We're probably almost at the edge of the forest already," Tsuna tried for optimism, but ended up wincing at the scratchiness of his voice. He got what sounded like a worried cheep in reply.

"We've been walking for a lot longer than I expected though. I don't remember running for so long earlier…" He bit his lip, before dismissing his concern. "I'm walking pretty slow now, that's probably it." A weak flare of Intuition tried to tell him something, but it was gone before he could even begin to figure out what.

Hibird cheeped in reply and flapped his wings a bit, and Tsuna suddenly had an idea. Maybe this was what his Intuition had been trying to say. He couldn't believe he hadn't thought of it earlier.

"Hibird, can you fly above the trees and try to find the way out? Then you could come down and point me in the right direction." He got a single cheep in reply before Hibird took off through the trees.

He could stop and rest for a minute while he waited for Hibird to get back. Maybe that would help to lessen the achiness. He sat down against a tree, leaning his head against the bark and closing his eyes with a sigh. What he wouldn't give for some water…

A sharp peck on the nose had his eyes flying open. He started to lurch forward, but managed to catch himself in time.

Hibird was hovering in front of his face, somehow managing to look stern despite being a little yellow ball of fluff. The forest was dark around them, rather than bright with the afternoon sun. He must have fallen asleep. Somehow, he felt even worse now than he had earlier.

Seconds later came the crack of thunder, and Tsuna seriously considered the merits of curling up in the foetal position and crying. He felt truly awful, he was in the middle of a forest at night, and it was about to rain.

"Sorry I fell asleep Hibird. Did you find the way out earlier?" The bird gave a full-body bob and a cheep that was drowned out by more thunder. "Do you think we can make it before the rain if I run?" This time the cheep was more hesitant, but Tsuna would take what he could get at this point. He had no choice, if he didn't want to sit out in the rain. "Alright, which way?" Hibird flew in the right direction, and Tsuna nodded before pulling the neck of his hoodie open. "There's a pocket on the inside where I keep my gloves, you should stay in there so you don't get hurt in the storm." He waited while Hibird got situated, then started off at a jog.

It started misting not even a minute later, and Tsuna sped up the pace. His vision was going fuzzy, his throat was burning so much he wouldn't be surprised if it was bleeding and he couldn't catch his breath, but he still didn't slow down. It would be worse if they were caught out in the rain. He repeated that in his head like a mantra. This day had been awful in nearly every way imaginable, but he didn't want to get soaked on top of it. At some point it was just adding insult to injury.

After ten minutes of mad sprinting through the forest, Tsuna finally broke through the trees and found himself on the outskirts of town. He once again got the urge to cry, but this time out of happiness.

"We did it, Hibird! We made it out! I don't think we can make it to my house before the rain, though," he grimaced. He really didn't want to get wet.

A wiggling sensation was the only warning he got before Hibird popped out of his hoodie, flying up into the sky. For a moment, Tsuna thought he would fly away, and was worried. He really didn't think such a little bird should be out during a storm.

But he was proven wrong, when Hibird flew in a direction, chirped at him, and then landed on his shoulder. Tsuna raised a hand to shield the bird from the light misting rain that was beginning to fall.

"You want me to go that way?" Another cheep. "Good enough for me." He took off once again, hurrying but not wanting to go by wherever it was Hibird was taking him.

Another chirp brought him to a stop a few minutes later. The clouds looked like they would open up at any minute, so hopefully Hibird was actually leading them to a place where they could wait out the storm. When he looked around though, he got a sinking feeling in his gut.

In front of him was a large traditional Japanese house. There was only one person that could live here. And really, Tsuna should have realized sooner that Hibird would be leading him to Hibari. Where else would Hibird think to go that was safe?

Hesitantly, he made his way to the door. Before he could do anything else, it was opened. Hibari stood silhouetted by the light from inside, confirming Tsuna's fears.

"What," Hibari looked distinctly unimpressed. Luckily, Hibird chose that moment to fly to his shoulder. His expression softened a bit when he looked at the little bird, who was no happily rubbing against Hibari's cheek.

"Where have you been?" It was asked softly, and it took Tsuna a moment to realize Hibari was talking to Hibird. That might be because, with all the adrenaline fading, everything was turning fuzzy again.

"Lost," Hibird chirped sadly, then seemed to brighten up. "Tsuna! Tsuna!" Hibari raised an eyebrow and glanced speculatively at the other boy, merely saying "Hm," in answer.

Meanwhile, Tsuna was leaning against the doorframe. He suddenly felt really dizzy. He might have been operating on fumes for the last few hours. It was catching up to him now. He could barely tell which way was up and which was down.

Hibari noticed this, of course. He sighed through his nose. "Come," he said as he turned and stalked inside. Tsuna assumed he was talking to him, since Hibird was on still on his shoulder. He followed his Cloud inside, barely shutting the door behind himself before it started pouring outside.

Tsuna followed Hibari to what must be a spare bedroom. "You may stay here for the night. There is a futon and blankets in the closet across the hall. The bathroom is the door at the end of the hallway. The kitchen is in the front of the house near the door, if you want water. Do not disturb me." With that, he left.

To most, that would seem rude, but to Tsuna, who had spent more time with Hibari-senpai than most thanks to the mafia stuff, it was obvious that Hibari was actually being very polite. Well, his own version of polite, anyway.

He happily got a glass of water before getting ready for bed, and fell asleep to the sound of rain on the roof.

* * *

This was my gift for tsuza-scribbles for the KHR Secret Santa 2017 Arc III. They asked for a fic about Tsuna and Hibird. :)


End file.
